Title: The Empress of Xytae
Series: Tales of Inthya, Book Four
Author: Effie Calvin
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: December 30, 2019
Pairing: Female/Female
Length: 83500
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy, LGBT, royalty, new adult, magic, paladins, gods, goddesses
Add to Goodreads
Synopsis
Crown Princess Ioanna of Xytae has kept her truthsayer blessing a secret for twenty years. In any other nation, her powerful magic would be cause for celebration. But Xytae’s patron is the war goddess Reygmadra, and the future empress is expected to be a brutal warrior.
Reserved and peaceful by nature, Ioanna knows the court sees her as a disappointment. She does her best to assuage their worries every day, working quietly beside her mother to keep the empire running while her father is away at war. But when news of the emperor’s untimely death reaches the capital, Ioanna finds herself ousted by her younger sister Netheia, who has the war magic Ioanna lacks.
Princess Vitaliya of Vesolda has come to Xytae to avoid her father’s upcoming wedding, which she sees as an affront to her mother’s memory. Vitaliya has absolutely no interest in politics or power struggles and intends to spend her time attending parties and embarrassing her family. But when she saves Ioanna’s life during Netheia’s coup, the two are forced to flee the capital together.
Despite their circumstances, Vitaliya enjoys travelling with Ioanna and realizes that the future empress’s shy and secretive nature is the result of her unhappy childhood. Ioanna is equally unaccustomed to being in the company of one as earnest and straightforward as Vitaliya, for she has spent her life surrounded by ambitious and cutthroat nobles.
Ioanna cannot allow her sister to continue their father’s legacy, and plots to rally supporters to her side so she can interrupt Netheia’s coronation. Vitaliya knows she ought to leave Xytae before the nation is ripped apart by civil war but finds she is unwilling to abandon Ioanna. But Ioanna’s enemies are always watching…and they’ve realized that Vitaliya is a weakness to be exploited.
After a few hours of painful silence, just as the sky was beginning to darken, Vitaliya pulled her horse to an abrupt halt. Ioanna did the same, afraid something was wrong. But Vitaliya slid down from her mount’s back and rushed over to the roadside. “Yes!” she cried. “Finally.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Ioanna, glancing back and forth to make sure no soldiers were approaching.
“Nothing’s wrong! Everything’s perfect!” Vitaliya threw her arms around one of the many trees bordering the roadside. “Oh, you’re beautiful!”
“What are you doing?” asked Ioanna. “I’m starving. It’s an orange tree.”
“But it’s not…” Ioanna looked up at the branches. “There won’t be any fruit for months. It’s too early.”
“Says you!” cried Vitaliya happily, calling bright-green magic to her hands. She pressed it into the trunk of the tree, and it flowed upwards, curving into the lowest branch, the only one within arm’s reach. Within minutes, fresh leaves emerged from the cold branch and unfurled like the wings of countless butterflies. And nestled amongst them Ioanna could see small, dark-green pearls that gradually lightened in color as they swelled to the size of a fist.
“I’ve never seen that done so fast,” marveled Ioanna, watching as the fruit changed from green to orange. People with Eyvindr’s magic could wake fruit trees out of season if their blessing was strong enough. But in Ioanna’s experience, it still took days for the fruit to ripen.
“Give them fifteen minutes to get darker,” Vitaliya advised. “They’ll taste better.”
“I’m a little envious,” said Ioanna. “It’s a very useful blessing.”
“I help the farmers, sometimes. Not so much recently, but in the past. We have some large farms near Bergavenna.”
Ioanna looked at Vitaliya with wide eyes. “Your parents allowed that? Or you did it in secret?”
“Actually, it was their idea. They brought in a priest to teach me after they realized I could make the roses bloom. He told them my blessing was strong, and so they wanted to put it to good use. I thought I’d hate it, being in the sun and the dust…but it’s nice. And I might as well contribute to something, right? In any case, I wasn’t allowed to do the real work. The tilling, the planting, and the carrying heavy things. Magic’s nothing compared to that.” Vitaliya flopped down onto the grass smiling, and apparently not concerned about getting dirt and leaves in her hair.
“Those farmers must have been honored.”
“I didn’t do anything an ordinary priest wouldn’t have,” denied Vitaliya. “And slower and clumsier at first. But they were kind. I thought it was just because of who my parents were, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt genuine.”
“Has the Temple of Eyvindr tried to recruit you?” Eyvindr, God of the Harvest and Third of the Ten, was an extremely powerful god, and his temples were influential. She would be surprised if the Vesoldan temple hadn’t taken an interest in Vitaliya.
“Oh yes, of course! But I won’t join. I’d have to give up my title and go live in the temple. And there’s no promise I’d stay in Bergavenna—what if they sent me to some dreadful farming town in the middle of nowhere, and I died of boredom?”
“I don’t think they’d do that to you,” said Ioanna. “Even if you gave up your rank, everyone would know who your family was. They’d never treat you like an ordinary priestess.”
“Maybe, but I don’t want to risk it. Besides I just don’t think I’d enjoy being a priestess. That kind of life has so many rules. I would look very nice in green, though, wouldn’t I?”
Purchase
NineStar Press | Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
Effie is definitely a human being with all her own skin, and not a robot. She writes science fiction and fantasy novels and lives with her cat in the greater Philadelphia area.
Website | Twitter
